Mountaineering With The Girls

June6 glaciar 1.JPG

I have been obsessed with climbing Denali for several years now, and more so since 2005, when our first Yukon Girls On Top (YGOT) Denali attempt was less than successful.

Women in high altitude mountaineering are in the minority. Packing your own weight or more in gear for three or four weeks, up a mountain in the snow and cold, and getting sick with altitude is not everyone's preferred vacation.

I don't understand it myself; not a week has gone by over the past seven years that I have not thought about climbing Denali. But while it has been at the front of my mind, it has not been at the front of my actions. Various events and circumstances have conspired to put the dream on pause.

Enter Tunde Fulop and her entourage of feminine adventurers. Fulop is an amazing action figure of a woman. A week following my mere mention of the idea, she had gathered together a group of her adventure racing and river questing buddies, got us all to agree on some dates and booked us a 7-Day Expedition primer course with Alaska Mountain Guides.

This was a practical move. Though everyone in the group was strong and fit, and a few had altitude experience, the mountaineering experience amongst the group was below what we would need on Denali. We also wanted to see if we all got along.

Getting along will not be a problem. This past May, six YGOT and one husband spent a week in the mountains at the Skagway Summit. I don't think the three guides leading the trip have ever heard so much laughter and entertaining conversation from one group.

We spent a week winter camping in glorious weather. We learned how to set up tents in the snow and the wind, how to protect ourselves in the mountains by traveling on rope teams, how to self-arrest with ice axes and how to rescue someone who has fallen in a crevasse. We also tied knots, built snow anchors and traveled on snowshoes with crampons (spiky tread). And who knew...us women got to sit and visit with hot drinks while the guy guides did all the cooking!

The culmination of our week was a climb of Feather Peak and a 360-degree panorama of the most amazing views. Or maybe it was the night out in Skagway with our guides after we had snowshoed out, showered and gussied-up.

In either case we all finished the stellar week with raccoon tans on our faces from glacier sunglasses and reflecting rays.

Now there are six women (and one guy) obsessed with climbing Denali; we just have to pick a date.